Self Loathing
by BithaBlu
Summary: After yet another fight Kagome thunders off towards the well. She gets distracted by a bitchy corpse and mud wrestling with her preincarnation ensues.
1. False Mirror

Self Loathing By BithaBlu  
  
[Insert usual disclaimer here] For any of you that care this is my first InuYasha fic. Once again- thanks to Snow Tigra for introducing me to yet another fantastic anima. Ini-dude bay-be!  
  
Self Loathing Chapter One: False Mirror  
  
"Owsari!"  
  
InuYasha's face slammed into the ground once again. Kagome glared at him crumpled on the rocky soil that they had just been arguing upon. Still seething, she whirled around and stormed off to the Bone Eater's Well. 'Stupid InuYasha' Kagome thought 'How dare he say that to me?!?' She crossed her arms and walked faster, thinking about what InuYasha had said to piss her off this time. 'My life on the other side isn't a useless waste of time! I have to prepare for the rest of my life! When we get the Shikon no Tama and beat Naraku then I'll go home and I won't have to come back here all the time...' Kagome stopped and let her arms slip back down to her sides as that thought sank in. 'I won't be able to come back, will I? I'd have to have the Shikon no Tama and there's no way anyone will trust me with it after the first time I had it...'  
  
Her arms slid back up as she hugged herself and tried to ignore the flood of thoughts that crashed into her head as she continued to trudge along towards the well. 'I won't be able to see what kind of youki Shippo grows up to be. I won't be here to watch Sango and Miroku finally realize that they care about each other as more than just friends. Though I bet it'll take Sango longer.' Kagome chuckled as she thought of Sango coming to terms with her feeling for Miroku. 'And InuYasha... I won't see him again either...' Kagome's feet hesitated. Her body was turning it's self around to walk back to the village before her brain reminded her of why she had stormed off in the first place. Kagome's lips pursed into a scowl again and she was just about to march straight to the well and jump back to her time when a voice slithered down from a tree she was standing near.  
  
"Poor child, were you thinking of going back to him? Don't you realize he'll never love you, no matter how many times you going scurrying back to him?" Kagome looked up to see Kikyo propped up smugly in the branches of a tree. Her soul-stealing creatures weaved around her as she stood up and then lifted her down to the ground. Kikyo sauntered up to the shocked Kagome and smirked. "His heart belongs to me."  
  
Kagome's shock was quickly replaced with a violent anger. "Well, I guess his is the only heart you have then," she retorted. Kagome shrugged casually as she tried to suppress the fear she has as she stood face to face with the dead miko that had tried to kill her. "I mean, you are a soulless, heartless corpse aren't you? Even the skin you wear is reformed soil that was given to you. By a monoke no less. At least you had the decency to kill it though. Although I would think that a respectable miko would have gone off and died again instead of stealing the souls of the dead people she was supposed to protect." Kagome grinned at the furious expression on Kikyo's face. "I mean, really, you use youki to take the souls so you can continue to liv- wait... exist. Didn't you used to battle with creatures that did that when you were alive?"  
  
Fury consumed Kikyo's face as Kagome prattled on. This impudent brat was supposed to be a reincarnation of her? Impossible. It was inconceivable that any part of her could not understand the need for the completion that InuYasha's death would bring. Something clicked in Kikyo's mind and she realized why the insipid girl was insulting her. The twisted smirk curled Kikyo's lips once again as she spoke, "Stupid child. Do you not think that I understand why you want me to return to my death?" Kikyo reveled at the sight of Kagome's face contorting in a mix of confusion and hostility. "You think that with me gone, InuYasha will have no choice but to accept you as his love. After all, as inferior as you are, you are a counterfeit of me. How could he not look at our face and remember the love that he and I have? But you forget one thing baka..." Kikyo's face distorted in rage as she hissed out "You will never be me!"  
  
Lighting fast, a hand reached out and slapped Kikyo across the face. Kagome didn't even realize that it had been her hand as she screamed "You bitch! I wouldn't ever want to be like you!" As Kikyo lunged for her, Kagome balled up her fist and swung as hard as she could towards the mirror image of her own face.  
  
* * * * * * *  
  
  
  
  
  
Danke to Rumiko Takahashi for creating these characters for fanfic authors to abuse. ;) 


	2. Prelude to a Storm

Prelude to a Storm  
  
InuYasha slowly climbed to his feet, clutching his head as agony ripped through his brain. "Stupid wench," he growled, "Why the hell did she have to 'sit' me on top of a fucking rock pile?" He gently touched the swollen bump on his head muttered curses about wanting to pummel that wench so she'd know how it felt.  
  
"InuYasha!" A shrill voice tore through his ears. Looking up slowly, InuYasha saw Shippou careening towards him with Sango and Miroku sprinting behind him. Ignoring the ache that was trying to rip its way out of his head InuYasha stumbled towards them, suddenly frightened (though he'd never admit it) at the panic he saw in thier faces.  
  
"What the hell is wrong now Shippou? Did Kagome leave without promising to bring you some more candy?" InuYasha sneered at the little kitsune in a vain attempt to cover the growing terror that was welling up inside. There were only a few things that would scare all three of his other traveling companions: Naraku attacking, youkai attacking, and Kagome being hurt. The sudden realization hit that since he couldn't sense any youkai, the only thing that could terrify them so much was that Kagome was-  
  
"Where is she?!?" InuYasha barked.  
  
Miroku bent over panting but managed to look up at the tense hanyou and say, "We're not sure. But there's something raging in the forest. Kaedme says it feels..." Miroku hesitated and InuYasha was tempted to rip the words out of his throat if he didn't hurry the hell up and tell him what the fuck was going on. "...It feels as though a miko is fighting. Something about pure rage and a storm of power. But whatever it is, it's twice as powerful as Kaedme remembers Kikyo being."  
  
An idea of what was going on slammed into InuYasha's already aching mind and he stared, wide-eyed, at the others. The only two coherant words in his head fell from his lips before he raced into the forest.  
  
"Oh Fuck."  
  
************* 


	3. Tempestuous Images

Tempestuous Images  
  
Running as fast as he could InuYasha raced through the forest towards the well. The sky grew noticeably darker the closer he got and when he looked up past the treetops he watched in horror as dark storm clouds gathered. Rain drops began to pour from the sky and InuYasha had to strain his ears to hear a voice scream "You bitch! I'll kill you!" He ran towards the noise and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight before him.  
  
Kagome was straddling Kikyo and slamming the dead miko's head against the now muddy ground and screaming inarticulately. Howls of frustration echoed through the forest and mixed with the sounds of thunder and rain as she resumed punching Kikyo's bloody face.  
  
"What the fuck is going on?" InuYasha asked without thinking. His feet took him a few steps closer to the two girls before he realized that it might not be safe to interfere with those two right now.  
  
Kagome and Kikyo both whirled their heads around to glare at the perplexed hanyou. The rain ceased for a second as Kagome opened her mouth to explain exactly what the fuck was going on. But that explanation never came thanks to Kikyo taking advantage of Kagome's distraction.  
  
The soul-sucking corpse arched her back violently and flipped Kagome over onto her back and proceeded to strangle the throat that so resembled her own. "I'll throttle you until you are almost dead" Kagome screeched as Kagome turned an interesting shade of purple. She let go of Kagome's throat with one hand and slapped her across her face repeatedly. "Then I will tie you to a tree and make you watch as I convince InuYasha to die with me," she continued as Kagome struggled violently. The sanctimonious smirk twisted across Kikyo's face as returned her hand to squeeze Kagome's throat. "Your heart will shatter the second you see him choose me, stupid child, and then you will die knowing that he never loved you!" She screamed the last four words in Kagome's face and regretted it.  
  
Kagome's eyes filled with a fury that Kikyo had never seen the likes of. Hands that had been trying valiantly to pull the cadaverous hands from her own neck balled up and slammed into Kikyo's ear. The carcass of bone and soil went flying off of Kagome and landed with a thump four feet away. Rolling to her side and gasping for air Kagome drew her legs up into a crouch and leaped over to the body her soul once inhabited.  
  
Just as her hands were about to rip open Kikyo's throat Kagome's body was pulled back into a set of strong arms. She wrestled to escape she found herself pinned against a heaving chest by two arms that ended in a set of familiar claws. Without caring about who held her tight, Kagome slammed her foot back and up towards the most sensitive portion of male anatomy and pushed the suddenly howling creature aside.  
  
Kikyo was already standing as Kagome looked back at her. The two faces were identical as they glared at each other murderously. Hatred coursed through Kagome's blood as she stood there with her fists clenched and panting. Never before in her life had she wanted so much to shred someone's skin with her hands. She wanted to splatter Kikyo's blood on the ground and stomp her face until her skull exploded. Kagome wanted to kill Kikyo in the most painful way possible and from the expression on the animated puppet's face, Kagome knew that Kikyo felt the same about her.  
  
"I will see you dead you worthless fool!" Kikyo spat out as blood dribbled down from a cut on her forehead.  
  
Kagome laughed harshly. Her voice dripped with bitter sarcasm as she said, "I can say that about you already you retarded cunt. You don't even know how to stay dead."  
  
"Insolent snipe!"  
  
"Fanatical bitch!"  
  
"Vapid emulation"  
  
"Biophiliac!"  
  
"Cheap imitation"  
  
Sango, Miroku and Shippou came running into the clearing behind the wincing hanyou and watched in amazement as Kagome and Kikyo spewed insults at each other. Hatred permeated the area as the two mikos each built up an enormous reservoir of energy. Miroku and Sango helped InuYasha to his feet and Miroku asked, "Why didn't you stop them?"  
  
InuYasha snorted derisively. "Would you get between those two crazy wenches right now?" he asked contemptuously. He tried to ignore both the throbbing pain shooting up from his groin and the vast amounts of hellish energy pervading the clearing but failed on both accounts. A tickle of fear rippled down his back as he felt the energy shift into form. Terror filled him and he didn't even hear Miroku mutter to Shippou that 'InuYasha probably had just wanted to watch them roll in the mud' or Shippou's confused reply of 'why would he want to watch that?' Not even the sound of Sango smacking the perverted monk caught his attention. All he could sense was the building energy and the taste of electricity in the air. His eyes shot up to the still seething clouds above and he realized what was going on.  
  
Something snapped in the air and InuYasha sprinted towards Kikyo and Kagome, bellowing "KAGOME!!!" He leaped Kagome and knocked her to the ground as a bolt of lighting stuck. A wave of heat exploded over InuYasha as he covered the still-shaking girl protectively. The air fizzled with tension for just a moment longer before Kagome pushed InuYasha off of her angrily. He rolled over to his side and his eyes danced in bewilderment between the scorch mark where Kikyo had been and her singed and unconscious body lying ten feet from where she had stood and then back to the scorch mark.  
  
He blinked dumbfoundedly and looked up at the still-enraged Kagome as he asked, "Why did she strike herself with the lighting?" 


End file.
